possible and has been granted to many for ages. When it is granted,
spirits speak with a man in his native tongue and briefly. And those who
speak with the Lord's permission never say anything that takes away the
freedom of the reason, nor do they instruct, for the Lord alone teaches
man, doing so by means of the Word to the man's enlightenment (of this in
numbers to come). I have been given to know this in my own experience. I
have spoken with spirits and angels for many years now. No spirit has
dared and no angel has wished to tell me, still less to instruct me,
about things in the Word or about any of its doctrine. The Lord alone has
taught me, who revealed Himself to me and afterwards continued to appear
to me as He does now, as the Sun in which He is, as He appears to the
angels, and He has enlightened me.
136. (iii) _No one is reformed by threats or penalties, as these coerce._
It is known that the external cannot compel the internal, but the
internal can compel the external; also that the internal refuses to be
coerced by the external and turns away. It is likewise known that
external enjoyments entice the assent and love of the internal; and it
may also be known that there is a forced internal and a free internal.
But all this, though known, needs to be lighted up, for much on being
heard is perceived at once to be so, because it is truth and hence is
affirmed, but if it is not confirmed by reasons, it can be weakened by
arguments from fallacies and finally denied. What we have said is known,
is therefore to be taken up afresh and established rationally.
[2] First: _The external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can
compel the external._ Who can be forced to believe or love? One can no
more be compelled to believe than he can be compelled to think that
something is so when he thinks it is not so, or to love than to will
something that he does not will; belief attaches to thought, and love to
the will. The internal can be compelled, however, by what is external not
to speak improperly against the laws of a kingdom, the morals of life or
the sanctities of the church. The internal can be compelled to this by
threats and penalties and is compelled and should be. But this is not the
specifically human internal, but one which the human being shares with
beasts; they can also be compelled. The human internal resides above this
animal internal. Here the human internal which cannot be coerced is
meant.
[3] Second: _The internal refuses to be coerced by the external and turns
away._ The reason is that the internal wills to be in freedom and loves
freedom. For, as was shown, freedom attaches to man's love and life. When
the internal feels it is being subjected to compulsion, therefore, it
withdraws as it were into itself, averts itself, and regards the
compulsion as its enemy. For the love which makes man's life is irritated
and causes him to think that he is then not himself and has no life of
his own. The internal of the human being is of this nature by the law of
the Lord's divine providence that he shall act from freedom in accord
with reason.
[4] Plainly, then, it does harm to compel men to divine worship by
threats and penalties. Some permit themselves to be forced to religion,
some do not. Many who do are adherents of Catholicism; but this is the
case with those in whom there is nothing internal in worship, but all is
external. Among those who do not allow themselves to be coerced are many
of the English nation, and as a result there is what is internal in their
worship and what is external is from the internal. Their interiors in
respect to religion appear in the light of the spiritual world like
bright clouds, but those of the former like dark clouds. The one and the
other appearance is to be seen in that world, and one who wishes may see
it when he enters that world on death. Furthermore, enforced worship
shuts one's evils in, which are hidden then like fire in wood under ashes
which keeps stirring and spreading until it bursts into flame. But
worship, not enforced but spontaneous, does not shut evils in; these are
therefore like a fire that flares up and goes out. Thence it is plain
that the internal refuses to be forced by the external and turns away.
The internal can compel the external because it is like a master and the
external like a servant.
[5] Third: _External enjoyments entice assent and love from the
internal._ Enjoyments are of two kinds, of the understanding or of the
will. Enjoyments of the understanding are also enjoyments of wisdom, and
those of the will also enjoyments of love; for wisdom belongs to the
understanding and love to the will. Enjoyments of the body or of the
senses, which are external pleasures, act as one with the internal
enjoyments, which are enjoyments of the understanding and the will.
Therefore, just as the internal is so averse to compulsion by the
external as to turn away, it looks so kindly on enjoyment in the external
that it turns to it. Assent follows on the part of the understanding, and
love on the part of the will.
[6] In the spiritual world all children are introduced by the Lord into
angelic wisdom and through this into heavenly love by delightful and
charming means, first by pretty things in the home and the charms of a
garden; then by representations of spiritual things affecting the
interiors of their minds with pleasure; and finally by truths of wisdom
and goods of love. Thus they are steadily led by enjoyments in due order,
first by the enjoyments of a love of the understanding and of its wisdom,
and then by the enjoyments of the love of the will which is their life's
love, to which all else that has entered through enjoyment is kept
subordinate.
[7] This is done because the will and understanding must all be formed by
what is external before they are formed by what is internal, for they are
formed first by what enters by the physical senses, chiefly the sight and
the hearing; then when a first will and understanding have been formed,
the internal of thought regards them as the externals of its thinking,
and either joins itself to them or separates itself from them, as they
are or are not enjoyable to it.
[8] It should be well understood, however, that the internal of the
understanding does not unite itself to the internal of the will, but it
is the latter that unites itself to the former and causes reciprocal
union. This is done by the internal of the will, not at all by the
internal of the understanding. Hence it is that man cannot be reformed by
faith alone, but by the love of the will which makes a faith for itself.
[9] Fourth: _There is a forced internal and a free one._ A forced
internal is found in those who are in external worship only and in none
that is internal. Their internal consists of thinking and willing what
the external is coerced to. Such are persons who worship living or dead
men or idols, or who rest their faith on miracles. No internal is
possible with them which is not at the same time external. And yet a
forced internal is possible with persons in internal worship; it may be
forced by fear or compelled by love. That forced by fear is found in
those who worship for fear of the torment and fire of hell. This internal
is not the internal of thought of which we have treated, however, but an
external of thought called internal here because it partakes of thought.
The internal of thought of which we have treated cannot be forced by any
fear; it can be compelled by love and by fear of failing to love. In the
true sense fear of God is nothing else. To be compelled by love and by
the fear of failing in it is self-compulsion, and self-compulsion, it
will be seen in what follows, is not contrary to freedom and rationality.
137. It is plain then what forced worship and unforced worship are like.
Forced worship is corporeal, inanimate, obscure and sad--corporeal because
it is of the body and not of the mind; inanimate because it has no life
in it; obscure for lack of understanding in it; and sad because it does
not have the joy of heaven in it. But worship not forced and real is
spiritual, living, seeing and joyful--spiritual, because spirit from the
Lord is in it; living, because life from Him is in it; seeing because
wisdom from Him is in it; and joyful because heaven from Him is in it.
138. (iv) _No one is reformed in states of no liberty or rationality._ We
showed above that only what a man does in freedom according to reason is
made his. This is because freedom belongs to the will and reason to the
understanding; acting in freedom in accord with reason a man acts from
the will by the understanding and what is done in the union of the two is
appropriated. Now, since the Lord wills that a man be reformed and
regenerated in order that eternal life or the life of heaven may be his,
and none can be reformed or regenerated unless good is appropriated to
his will and truth to his understanding as if they were his, and only
that can be appropriated which is done in freedom of the will and in
accord with the reason of the understanding, no one is reformed in states
of no freedom or rationality. There are many such states, but they may be
summarized as states of fear, misfortune, mental illness, physical
disease, ignorance, and intellectual blindness. Something will be said of
each.
139. No one is reformed in a _state of fear_ because fear takes away
freedom and reason or liberty and rationality. Love opens the mind's
interiors but fear closes them, and when they are closed man thinks
little and only what comes to the lower mind or to the senses. All fears
that assail the lower mind have this effect.
[2] We showed above that man has an internal and an external of thought.
Fear can never invade the internal of thought; this is always in freedom,
being in a man's life-love. But it can invade the external of thought.
When it does, the internal of thought is closed and thereupon man can no
longer act in freedom in accord with his reason, nor be reformed.
[3] The fear which invades the external of thought and closes the
internal is chiefly fear of losing standing or profit. Fear of civil
penalties or of outward ecclesiastical penalties does not close the
internal, for the laws respecting them pronounce penalties only on those
who speak and act contrary to the civil requirements of the kingdom and
the spiritual of the church, but not on those who think contrary to them.
[4] Fear of infernal punishment invades the external of thought, to be
sure, but only for some moments, hours or days; it is soon restored to
its freedom by the internal of thought, which is man's spirit and
life-love and is called thought of the heart.
[5] Fear of losing one's standing or wealth, however, does invade man's
external of thought, and when it does, closes the internal of thought
above to influx from heaven and makes it impossible for man to be
reformed. This is because everyone's life-love from birth is love of self
and the world, and self-love is at one with the love of position, and
love of the world with the love of wealth. When a man has position or
wealth, therefore, for fear of losing them he strengthens the means at
hand--whether civil or churchly and in either case means to power--which
serve him for position and wealth. The man who does not yet have standing
or wealth but aspires to them, does the same, but for fear he will lose
the reputation they give.
[6] It was said that this fear seizes on the external of thought and
closes the internal above to heaven's inflowing. The internal is said to
be closed when it makes one completely with the external, as it is then
not in itself but in the external.
[7] But as the loves of self and the world are infernal loves and the
fountain-heads of all evils, it is plain what the internal of thought in
itself is like with men in whom those loves reign and are their life's
loves, namely, that it is full of lusts of evils of every kind.
[8] This men do not know who fear loss of place and opulence and are
strongly persuaded of their special religion, most particularly if this
promises that they may be worshiped as holy and also as governors of
hell; they can blaze, as it were, with zeal for the salvation of souls
and yet this is from infernal fire. As this fear especially takes away
rationality itself and liberty itself, which have a heavenly origin,
plainly it makes against the possibility that a man may be reformed.
140. No one is reformed in a _state of misfortune_ if he thinks about God
and implores help only then, for it is a coerced state; wherefore, on
coming into a free state he returns to his former state when he thought
little if at all about God. It is different with those who feared God in
a state of freedom previously. For by "fearing God" is meant fearing to
offend Him, and by "offending Him" to sin, and this comes not from fear
but from love. Does not one who loves another fear to hurt him? And the
more he loves him, the more he fears hurting him? Lacking this fear, love
is insipid and superficial, of the mind only and not of the will. By
states of misfortune states of despair in danger are meant, in battles,
for example, duels, shipwreck, falls, fires, threatening or unexpected
loss of property, also of office or standing, and similar mishaps. To
think about God only then is not to think from God but from self. For
then the mind is as it were imprisoned in the body, so is not in freedom
nor possessed then of rationality, and without these reformation is
impossible.
141. No one is reformed in _a state of mental illness_ because such
illness takes away rationality and thus the liberty of acting in accord
with reason. The whole mind is sick and not sane; the sane mind is
rational, but not a sick one. Such disorders are melancholy, a spurious
or a false conscience, fantasies of different kinds, mental grief over
misfortune, anxiety and anguish of the mind over a bodily defect.
Sometimes these are regarded as temptations, but they are not. Genuine
temptations have spiritual objects in view and in them the mind is wise,
but these states are concerned with natural objects and in them the mind
is disordered.
142. No one is reformed in _a state of bodily sickness_ because his
reason is not then in a state of freedom; the state of the mind depends
on that of the body. When the body is sick, the mind is also, if for no
other reason because it is withdrawn from the world. Withdrawn from the
world it thinks indeed about God but not from Him, for it is not
possessed of freedom of the reason. Man has this freedom in being midway
between heaven and the world, thus can think from heaven and from the
world, likewise from heaven about the world and from the world about
heaven. So when he is ill and thinks about death and the state of his
soul after death, he is not in the world but is withdrawn in spirit. In
this state by itself no one can be reformed, but he can be strengthened
in it if he was reforming before he fell ill.
[2] It is similar with those who renounce the world and all occupation in
it and give themselves only to thoughts about God, heaven and salvation;
on this further elsewhere. If those of whom we were speaking have not
been reformed before their illness, then if they die they become such as
they were before their illness. It is vain, therefore, to suppose that
one can repent or receive some faith in illness; for no deed accompanies
the repentance, and there is no charity in the faith; each is oral only
and not at all from the heart.
143. No one is reformed in _a state of ignorance,_ for all reformation is
by truths and a life according to them. Therefore those who do not know
truths cannot be reformed, but if they long for them with affection for
them, after they die they undergo reformation in the spiritual world.
144. Nor can one be reformed in _a state of blindness of the
understanding._ These also have no knowledge of truths or consequently of
life, for the understanding must teach truths and the will must do them;
when the will does what the understanding teaches, a man has life in
accord with truths. When the understanding is blind, however, the will
also is indifferent and acts in freedom according to one's reason only to
do the evil confirmed in the understanding, and the confirmation is
falsity. Besides ignorance, a religion which teaches a blind faith also
blinds the understanding; so does a false doctrine. For just as truths
open the understanding, falsities close it. They close it above and open
it below, and opened only below, the understanding cannot see truths but
only confirm what a man wills, falsity especially. The understanding is
also blinded by lusts of evil. As long as the will is in these, it moves
the understanding to confirm them, and so far as they are confirmed, the
will cannot be in affections of good, from these see truths, and so be
reformed.
[2] Take, for instance, one who is in the lust of adultery: his will,
which is in the enjoyment of his love, moves his understanding to confirm
it, saying, "What is adultery? Is there any evil in it? Does not the like
occur between husband and wife? Cannot offspring be born of it, too?
Cannot a woman receive more than one without harm? How does anything
spiritual enter into this?" So thinks the understanding which is then the
courtesan of the will. So stupid is it made by debauchery with the will
that it is unable to see that marital love is spiritual and heavenly love
itself, a reflection of the love between the Lord and the church from
which it is derived; is in itself sacred and chastity itself, purity and
innocence; causes men to be forms of love, since partners can love each
other from inmosts and so form themselves into loves; nor can it see that
adultery destroys this form and with it the Lord's image; and what is
abhorrent, that the adulterer mingles his life with that of the husband
in the wife, for a man's life is in the seed.
[3] Because this is profane, hell is called adultery, and heaven on the
other hand is called marriage. Furthermore, the love of adultery
communicates with the lowest hell, but true marital love with the inmost
heaven; the reproductive organs of both sexes also correspond to
societies of the inmost heaven. These things are adduced so that it may
be known how blinded the understanding is when the will is in the lust of
evil, and that no one can be reformed in a state of blindness of the
understanding.
145. (v) _Self-compulsion is not contrary to rationality and liberty._ We
have shown that man has an internal and an external of thought; that they
are distinguishable as prior and subsequent or higher and lower; and that
being so distinct they can act separately and also jointly. They act
separately when a man speaks and acts from the external of his thought
otherwise than he thinks and wills inwardly; they act jointly when he
speaks and acts as he thinks and wills. The latter is common with the
sincere, the former with the insincere.
[2] Inasmuch as the internal and the external of the mind are so
distinct, the internal can even fight with the external and by combat
drive it to compliance. Conflict arises when the man deems evils to be
sins and resolves to desist from them. When he desists, a door is opened
and the lusts of evil which have occupied the internal of thought are
cast out by the Lord and affections of good are implanted in their place.
This occurs in the internal of thought. But the enjoyments of evil lust
which occupy the external of thought cannot be cast out at the same time;
conflict arises therefore between the internal and the external of
thought. The internal wants to cast out those enjoyments because they are
enjoyments of evil and do not agree with the affections of good in which
the internal now is, and wants to introduce in their place enjoyments of
good which do agree. These are what are called goods of charity. From the
disagreement comes the conflict which, if it grows severe, is called
temptation.
[3] Now as man is man by virtue of the internal of his thought, for this
is his very spirit, obviously he compels himself when he compels the
external of his thought to comply or to receive the enjoyments of his
affections or the goods of charity. Plainly this is not contrary to
rationality and liberty but in accord with them; rationality starts the
combat and liberty follows it up; liberty itself resides with rationality
in the internal man and from that in the external.
[4] Accordingly, when the internal conquers, which it does when it has
reduced the external to compliance and obedience, man is given liberty
itself and rationality itself by the Lord, for he is delivered by the
Lord then from infernal freedom which in itself is enslavement, is
brought into heavenly freedom which is freedom in itself, and is given
association with angels. The Lord Himself teaches ( John 8:31-36) that
those who are in sins are enslaved and that He delivers those who receive
truth from Him through the Word.
146. Let an example serve for illustration. A man who has taken pleasure
in defrauding and deceiving sees and inwardly acknowledges it to be sin
and resolves to desist from it; with this a battle begins of his internal
with the external. The internal man is in an affection for honesty, but
the external still in the enjoyment of defrauding. This enjoyment,
utterly opposed to enjoyment in honesty, does not give way unless forced
to do so and can be forced to do so only by combat with it. When the
fight is won, the external man comes into the enjoyment of a love of
honesty, which is charity. Then the pleasure of defrauding gradually
turns unpleasant to him. It is the same with all other sins, with
adultery and whoredom, revenge and hatred, blasphemy and lying. The most
difficult battle of all is with the love of ruling from self-love. A
person who subdues this love, easily subdues all other evil loves, for
this is their summit.
147. Let it be told briefly how the Lord casts out lusts of evil
occupying the internal man from birth and in their place bestows
affections of good when a man on his part removes the evils as sins. It
was shown earlier that man possesses a natural, a spiritual and a
celestial mind, that he is only in the natural mind as long as he is in
lusts of evil and their enjoyments, and that during this time the
spiritual mind is closed. But as soon as a man on self-examination
confesses evils to be sins against God because they are contrary to
divine laws and accordingly resolves to desist from them, the Lord opens
the spiritual mind, enters the natural by affections of truth and good,
enters the reason, and by the reason puts into order what is disordered
below in the natural. It is this that strikes the man as a battle, and
strikes those who have indulged much in enjoyments of evil as temptation,
for when the order of its thinking is inverted the lower mind suffers
pain.
Inasmuch as the battle is against what is in the man himself and what he
feels to be his, and no one can fight against himself except from a more
interior self and from freedom in it, it follows that the internal man
fights against the external and does so from freedom, and compels the
external to obey. This, then, is compelling oneself, and, clearly, it is
not contrary to liberty and rationality, but in accord with them.
148. Everyone desires to be free, moreover, and to be rid of the unfree
or servitude. The boy under a master wishes to be his own master and thus
free; so every man-servant under his master or maid under her mistress.
Every girl wishes to leave the paternal home and marry, to do freely in a
home of her own; and every boy who desires to work, enter business, or
hold some position wishes to be released from his subordination to others
and to be at his own disposal. All of these who serve willingly in order
to be free compel themselves, and in doing so act from freedom according
to reason but from an inner freedom, by which outward freedom is regarded
as servant. We add this to confirm the fact that self-compulsion is not
contrary to rationality and liberty.